Three Day Juice Cleanse - Day Two

Day two and I'm feeling good! But, today was a test to my will power for sure. While it's a lot harder to get my hands on a fresh juice when I have to work, it's definitely a lot harder to say no to the eat-when-I'm-bored cravings I can have on a day off. That's why I took a train up to Poughkeepsie to meet up with my mom and spend the day with her. She's into juicing as well so I was able to come "home" to a fully stocked fridge which was awesome!

I started the day with a kick. I had baby spinach, ginger, lemon, cucumber, and a dash of cayenne pepper. The spinach and cucumber give a healthy does of vitamin K and spinach is a serious super food. Ginger is shown to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol and can even destroy cancer cells! I love adding lemon to my juice and it's packed with vitamin C and are alkaline-forming. Don't skip on the cayenne - it's not just for taste. It's shown to work as a pain suppressant and a natural morphine. This is a spicy drink and as much as I loved it, it's not sweet at all so it might not be the best option to try during your first juice experience.

The juice isn't exactly filling but it is satisfying - or at least it is for an hour or two. My second juice (created by mom) was more sweet. It was with carrot, apple, sugar snap peas, spearmint leaves, lemon, spinach, and kale. Carrots are antioxidants and have a ton of vitamin A (which is what keeps your vision 20/20.) It also is great for glowing skin and healthy teeth. Apples are laxatives and are great for those who are juicing for weight loss. Kale is another super food. It's high in calcium, vitamin K, and manganese, which all promote bone density. Got Kale?

After going "number one" 7 times, we drove to New Paltz where we soon had to stop at Karma, a vegan café, for another juice. I grabbed a quick carrot, parsley, and celery to hold me over and stabilize my pH levels.

We got home just around dinner time and time for, yep you guessed it, another juice. First I took a shot of juiced wheatgrass. It's great mixed in with drinks, but enzymes are best able to absorb this detoxifier when consumed on an empty stomach. It's really sweet but kind of intense so brace yourself. After that I juiced carrot, celery, red/green/yellow pepper, beet, and purple kale. Beets are amazing for liver function and cleansing the blood. They also are very sweet and make any juice taste great.

Don't be discouraged if you make a gross juice. (Sometimes I make some seriously disgusting ones.) But I try to get a variety in and if there's something that you don't really like, try to mask it with a strong fruit or spice. It's really important to drink water in between juices, which I honestly sometimes forget to do. I also like drinking coconut water if I can find one that's not from concentrate. Today my amazing mom sliced open a young coconut for me so I could get the fresh stuff. The work is well worth it because it's so much tastier than the bottled stuff. - Then again, I wasn't the one hacking at it so what do I know.